KC | Chapter 23

Chen Xi was like a battery pack, fully charged after resting on the weekend, then continuously draining his power from Monday to Friday while working. Today was Friday, and the battery that was about to run out was unbearably tired, forcing itself to hang on by sheer willpower.

The office drones who started work at eight in the morning finished their exercises and went to training. Chen Xi listened until he got sleepy, but Zhang Yuanji beside him listened with great interest and would regularly take photos of the key training points seriously. Chen Xi could not figure out why a well-connected backdoor employee would be so eager about product training, could it be that Zhang Yuanji was going to personally negotiate deals?

Looking at Li Hua and Liu Xueying in the row behind him, they were also listening to the training seriously. Wasn’t signing KA deals about connections? Just like Lin Yiran, who organized gatherings every day and got people drunk until the deal was signed. When KA talked deals with clients, they usually downplayed the product part. Chen Xi could not understand what was wrong with KA, why were they learning product knowledge so seriously?

There were not many fish in the sea to begin with, and even those who drove an aircraft carrier had to go down to the sea to catch fish. How were ordinary fishermen supposed to make a living?

After the training ended, Li Hua asked Chen Xi, “Do you have Mr. Wang’s training materials?”

The product knowledge training materials were handed out upon joining Lanhai, one copy for every business employee.

“Brother Li, weren’t you given the materials when you joined KA?” It had only been two weeks, and he had already changed how he addressed him, calling him “Mr. Wang” instead of “Wang Shuang”. It seemed she had brainwashed him quite a bit.

“They were handed out, but nobody explained them then, so I was too lazy to read them.” Li Hua said, “I didn’t realize before that product knowledge was this useful. Thanks to these days of training.”

Li Hua was good at talking to clients and controlling clients, but he was indeed lacking in professionalism. However, when meeting a client during a proposal, he could bring the planner along. Li Hua was almost 40 already, and his learning ability was not as good as a fresh college graduate’s. He learned product knowledge slowly. Chen Xi felt that Li Hua really did not need to waste time learning products.

“Brother Li, I have the training materials. I’ll transfer you a copy later. But after training, can you remember it?” I had only looked through the materials when I took the onboarding exam. If not for Wang Shuang’s training, I would have almost forgotten all the product knowledge.

“If I can’t remember, then I’ll look at it a few more times.” Li Hua said calmly, “Before I came to Lanhai, I worked in traditional media. Ten years ago, when I talked deals with clients, I really only relied on ‘drinking’. But now the times have changed. There are many channels for the client side to choose from, and there are many media platforms too. Relying only on maintaining relationships to sign deals is indeed not enough.”

“Last month, I provided marketing planning to the client as an industry expert, and the other side’s operator asked me, ‘What’s the CPA, what’s the line cost, what’s the cost of customer leads, what’s the effective conversion?’ They directly asked me until I was dumbfounded.” Li Hua had previously sold display ads like radio and newspapers. His client type was completely the opposite of Chen Xi’s. Most of them needed brand slogan exposure and maintaining brand image, but he had not expected that clients like these now also demanded performance conversion.

Chen Xi said in disbelief, “Now even brand clients are this competitive? They can still ask each person individually, ‘Through what channel did you learn about our brand?’ And consumers may not necessarily buy when they see the ad at the time. They might place an order much later, so the client wanting results is meaningless anyway.”

“Yeah, when I talked to the client about brand, they talked to me about performance. Completely different frequencies.” Li Hua sighed. “I communicate with clients from the angle of advertising strategy, but the client only cares about results. In the end, I could not convince him to accept my idea, and his operator did not agree to place ads without precise data, so the talk fell apart.”

To make the identity of “industry expert” real, one had to understand all the media used for placement.

So Li Hua learning product knowledge was so he could connect with people at different levels on the client side and keep effective communication.

“Sometimes I’m pretty jealous of you and Brother Ma. You two came over from business, so you’re familiar with product knowledge, unlike me, who ‘entered the profession halfway’. The fixed way of thinking from traditional media deal-making has already formed, and it’s hard to change.”

Chen Xi thought to himself, Li Hua and Lin Yiran were the same age, both born in 1988, they were both old men ten years older than him. People almost 40 could be so driven, so how could I, a young guy in my twenties, lose?

The young guy returned to his desk, pulled off a sticky note, wrote, “Work hard, make good money,” and pasted it in the most eye-catching spot directly facing his desk, giving himself a shot of motivation.

“Last day already, come on!” Chen Xi said softly to himself.

“What’s with you.” Zhang Yuanji was picking his teeth across from him. He had finished his noodles, while Chen Xi still had more than half a bowl left. Although Chen Xi usually did not eat much either, today he was especially gloomy, his face practically written with “down in the dumps.”

The ambitious young man who had clearly been cheering himself on in the morning, after spending an entire morning visiting clients and failing one after another, had his mood crash at noon. Clients could affect all of Chen Xi’s emotions.

“Brother Zhang, I’m really jealous of you. You have strong connections, and you can pull people in. When I call and don’t mention anyone, clients won’t even talk to me. Signing deals is way too hard.” Li Hua envied Chen Xi for being skilled in product knowledge, Chen Xi envied Zhang Yuanji for having wide connections, and Zhang Yuanji envied Li Hua for being an industry expert. One envied another.

“Haha, I don’t even know which companies have budgets, and I’m not good with words either. Without you two bringing me along, I wouldn’t be able to sign any deals at all.” Zhang Yuanji said, “The surname Wang is good at product knowledge, Brother Ma is awesome at solution planning, and I only know a few people. Our KA team each has our own strengths, we mutually benefit each other.”

“But you all have specialties. I can’t do anything well, I don’t have a single item I can brag about.”

It’s all Lin Yiran’s fault for dragging me onto this pirate ship, I really fucking shouldn’t have come to KA!

“Tsk tsk, listen to what you’re saying.” Zhang Yuanji said, “We each have our own strengths, and you are integrating everything, it’s just that the integration isn’t thorough enough.”

Chen Xi drooped his head. “So that means I know everything, but I’m also useless at everything, huh.”

“Uh…” Although that was true, he could not say it so plainly. Zhang Yuanji tactfully changed the wording, “If you were good at everything, wouldn’t you become Brother Lin? In these 20 years at Lanhai, only one Brother Lin has come out. He can only be looked up to, not surpassed. Relax your mindset, it’s normal that you can’t compare.”

KA had extremely high requirements for overall quality. Those who could not read the situation, those who had no brains, and those who could not endure hardship could not do KA. Salespeople who met the above conditions were already like sifting gold from sand in the waves, and those who could stand at the top of KA could be called as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, and Lin Yiran was one of those rare ones.

Lin Yiran was professional with product knowledge, awesome at solution planning, and had a wide network of connections. One person could equal Wang Shuang, Ma Longfei, and Zhang Yuanji combined. Most importantly, he had a mouth made for negotiations. In face-to-face negotiations, if Lin Yiran was second in Lanhai, no one dared claim first.

The highest point in sales was KA, and the highest point in KA was Lin Yiran.

During lunch break, Chen Xi did not nap. He kept working at his desk. KA level was higher than business, so the assessment was naturally heavier than business too. He wanted to try harder and complete the assessment.

Chen Xi opened the computer, about to pick client resources from the industry websites as usual, when he suddenly froze.

The newly signed stone materials city client only had 5K gross profit. He needed to sign 20 such small deals to complete the quarterly assessment.

But if it was a key client like Shanyao, signing one would be enough.

If Li Hua could change the way he worked, why should I stick to old conventions and work just like a business employee?

Lin Yiran went out socializing every day, and I never saw him picking leads or making calls, yet he signed the most deals.

The fixed thinking from two years of sales work told me: only by making more calls and inviting more clients, with a larger base of client coverage, could I sign deals. But in reality, the number of clients was not about “more,” it was about “precision.”

Lanhai split key clients into LKA and KA, and the difference between the two was the client’s budget.

LKA referred to local clients with node marketing budgets, and each event period could at least pull out a budget of 50K. For example: a certain car manufacturer launching a new model, where 4S stores would do advertising promotion during the week of the new car launch; a certain commercial property anniversary celebration, which would have an advertising marketing need lasting about 10 days; a certain hairy crab brand, around Mid-Autumn Festival, with about a month of advertising coverage…

KA referred to key clients that had marketing budgets all year round, and at each node they could at least spend 300K, with annual budgets of over a million or even over ten million. For example: a nationwide chain renovation company needing to rely on advertising business year-round and continuously take orders; government and tourism clients needing online and offline integrated marketing matrices and strong promotional coverage; pharmaceutical companies needing to suppress negative news, promote single products, and continuously raise brand influence…

Signing LKA clients could only barely meet the assessment, while signing KA clients could make real money.

In the year that Chen Xi had come to KA, he signed 2 to 3 LKA clients each quarter, just to deal with the assessment; while in these years, Lin Yiran signed 2 to 3 KA clients every month, propping up half of Lanhai KA.

It was not impossible to work overtime and make more calls to cover clients, but that was not what I wanted.

Signing small and medium-sized clients to support performance assessment was too hard, I needed to change the way I worked.

I wanted to sign key clients that could support me in completing my performance.

Sign real KA clients.

Sign high-budget, large-value, KA key clients like Shanyao!

Key clients were not something impossible to meet, they were right there. The few key clients in Yucheng that could be counted on one hand, all the media knew their names.

The hard part about key clients was development, but if I did not go develop them, they would never be my key clients. Just like a high mountain, if I did not go climb it, I would never be able to cross it.

The hard part about key clients was breaking the ice. Before signing, one had to spend a lot of time building relationships with people at every level on the client side. But if I kept shutting myself off and did not contact them, then when they placed ads, they definitely would not think of me either.

Two years of the pandemic had crushed many small and medium-sized companies. The leaders of each industry stood out after the pandemic, just like Shanyao, which in only one year had already developed from a middle-tier client at the time of signing to a top-tier client. If I did not interact with clients more and blindly stayed in the company making calls, I would never sign key clients.

Chen Xi opened Lanhai’s sales system and deleted all the small and medium-sized clients. He opened the websites of major brands, searched for high-budget, advertising-compatible industries, and wrote furiously at his desk:

1. Shanyao Catering

2. Tengda Aluminum

3. Zao Wang City Scenic Area

4. Gulin Decoration

5. Zhongcai Education

6. Pinsheng Education

7. Xiling Pharmedical Devices

8. Zhonghai Pharmaceuticals

9. Aolai Real Estate

10. Yige Wooden Doors

Chen Xi wrote these key clients on the inner lining of his worn-out fake A handbag.

This was his key client list.

If he could sign even one of these 10 clients, he could complete the quarterly assessment, catch his breath, and rest for half a year while properly looking for a satisfying job.

The setting sun in the evening spilled over his fair cheek, and Chen Xi tightly gripped the worn-out fake A handbag, the knuckles of his fingers turning white.

He did not want anyone else to discover his list, but he had to remember it firmly himself.

The gears of fate began to turn the moment he decided to sign KA key clients, at the moment he wrote down this list, and the road ahead was destined to be rough.

Chen Xi would lie awake all night and lose his appetite because of key clients, give up many of his fixed principles, abandon his true self, and become the KA top brother whose heart was as hard as iron, with strong confidence, wisdom, and decisiveness.

This list would also bind his fate with Lin Yiran, entangle it in chaos, and make it impossible to separate.